"I think in some ways the redistricting in Buncombe County has worked out well, but that doesn't change the fact that it was imposed on a county that wasn't asking for it," said Rep. Brian Turner.

Voters could get the final say on changes to the structure or voting districts of elected local boards that govern them under a bill introduced in the state House by three Guilford County legislators and state Rep. Brian Turner.

At present, the state General Assembly can change the structure of city and town councils, county boards of commissioners and school boards without voter approval — and did exactly that with the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners in 2011, adding two members to the board and making most members run in districts.

Turner and other Democrats have been dismayed by instances of the Republican-controlled legislature imposing changes on local government boards with Democratic majorities against their will in recent years.

The legislature "has had a history in the past few years of really overreaching and messing in the affairs of local government," said Turner, who lives in Biltmore Forest.

The bill was referred Tuesday to the House Rules Committee, often a holding pen for legislation destined to go nowhere.

The measure would set a statewide referendum on a constitutional amendment to establish new procedures. If passed, it would require that changes like adding or subtracting seats to a town or city council, school board or board of commissioners that the General Assembly approves must then be OK'd by the voters of the jurisdiction affected to become law.

Bills to restructure Greensboro City Council and have the Wake County Board of Commissioners elected by district both got tentative approval from the Senate Wednesday on identical, 31-16 votes that went along party lines after amendments to put the measures to the voters were tabled. Wake County's all-Democrat Board of Commissioners opposed the bill affecting that county.

The House has yet to consider the measures.

"A legislator sometimes has sort of an outsized sense of power," Turner said. "We saw that in Buncombe County when we were redistricted when no one asked to be redistricted, and it's happening in Wake County now."

A 2011 law sponsored by then-Rep. Tim Moffitt, a Buncombe County Republican who Turner beat in the 2014 general election, expanded the Buncombe Board of Commissioners from five members to seven and required that six of the seven seats be filled by district elections. Commissioners had been elected in countywide races. A subsequent proposal by county commissioners to set a referendum by county voters on changes was preempted by the General Assembly.

Some Buncombe residents had pushed for district elections off and on in previous years, saying at-large elections gave Asheville voters too much influence, but the Board of Commissioners did not ask for a change. The new structure makes Republicans favorites to win seats in one district and another a tossup between the parties.

The third district, which takes in most of Asheville, is heavily Democratic.

The bill introduced Tuesday would not change the way Buncombe commissioners are elected.

"I think in some ways the redistricting in Buncombe County has worked out well, but that doesn't change the fact that it was imposed on a county that wasn't asking for it," Turner said.

Turner and the bill's three other primary sponsors are all Democrats, as are eight co-sponsors, including Rep. Susan Fisher, D-Buncombe.

The General Assembly in 2013 passed a bill to force the Lee County Board of Education to go from nonpartisan to partisan elections.